With six days until the first round of the NHL entry draft Friday night in Philadelphia, the Senators GM will have to wait before he gets his best offer for captain Jason Spezza.

The issue for the Senators is simple: The market is crowded at the moment and Spezza isn't the only top centre available for hire. People who watch a lot of hockey have a hard time recalling the last time there were this many big names available heading into the summer.

All this is not making it easy for Murray and he knows the teams trying to do the buying are sitting in a position of strength.

"I've talked to other teams that have centres, they don't know what they're doing any more than I do as far as what value they can get for these people," said Murray Thursday. "It does give a team that's trying to acquire one a little leverage, there's no doubt about that."